Am I Crazy? - Ebay Store

[voyage]

I am really tempted to open a ebay shop! The reason being as well as running the website I work in the family hardware/ironmongery store. I really think that we could benefit from this side of things.
I am however abit reluctant to do it as I here so many bad things about ebay.
Does ebay offer its own invoicing service?
I have alot of questions, as I like to get everything right the first time round. I know this wont happen, but the more I know before hand the better!
Any thoughts or comments would be greatly welcomed!

Many Thanks

 

[voyage]

The website specialises in a specific line of products. Where as the ebay store would be the whole lot.

 

[paulears]

Two things are bad.
1. Ebay fees
2. Paypal fees

If you can cope with this fee structure, then ebay sales are a good way to bring in extra income. The local Ford dealership have an ebay shop and sell their surplus spares and second hand odds and ends (not cars, just parts)

Although you can use ebay told to send invoices and things like this, I don't - I simply get a notification from ebay something sold, and one from paypal saying they've paid - and I manage it from that. You can automated various bits of it, but in general, ebay have all the 'tool's you need to do it quite simply. Why not try it on some of your stock and see how it goes. If you start to sell, increase the range

 

[Business1Solutions]

First thing to do, open a separate bank account for eBay!!! PayPal and eBay are very dodgy with closing peoples accounts and blocking money.

 

[voyage]

First thing to do, open a separate bank account for eBay!!! PayPal and eBay are very dodgy with closing peoples accounts and blocking money.

This is one of the reasons along with many others such as charge backs, packages going missing etc that I am unsure if I want to put the time and effort into ebay.

 

[Business1Solutions]

Maybe use the money which you would spend on eBay fees and commission on PPC instead and direct some traffic to your website.

 

[arcon5]

Maybe use the money which you would spend on eBay fees and commission on PPC instead and direct some traffic to your website.

Or he could do both. Its still an additional income stream.

eBay & PP aren't particularly cheap, can be very dodgy indeed... but the simple fact is its good for generating extra sales. It generates leads. Done right it can be very profitable indeed.

The lowest level store costs about £15. Its atleast worth tryin for a month or two.

With regards to invoices, setup your own ordering system, enter the customers address, email and order details and send invoices, thank you emails ect from your website. Fully customised and you have their details for newsletters and promotions.

 

[oliverbanks]

Ebay is easy. The hard thing is stopping yourself become fustrated at the fees they take from you!

I'm 17 and have an ebay store & ebay manager pro. This week I turned over £700+. It's not hard, just make sure you describe your product well, offer good images and dispatch within good time!

 

[Business1Solutions]

Ebay is easy. The hard thing is stopping yourself become fustrated at the fees they take from you!

I'm 17 and have an ebay store & ebay manager pro. This week I turned over £700+. It's not hard, just make sure you describe your product well, offer good images and dispatch within good time!

Great - what do you sell?

 

[benjamin_c]

Great - what do you sell?

If he's smart he's not going to give details because someone will just copy him and loose him sales if they undercut his prices.....

 

[gemd89]

Thought u had to be 18 to sell on ebay and get a paypal account?

Gemma

 

[benjamin_c]

Thought u had to be 18 to sell on ebay and get a paypal account?

Gemma

You do, but you can just put in different date of birth or use someones elses details, it's a little naughty but as long as you stick to the rules no one will care, i've had my account for 6 years and it thinks i'm 2 years older than i am

 

[arcon5]

As long as its not his only revenue stream because if everything goes tits up he will screwed (and knowing ebay/PP it will at some point).

 

[silvermusic]

I'm 17 and have an ebay store & ebay manager pro.

I wouldn't shout too loud if I were you, you're supposed to be 18.

 

[chris.quinn89]

Oliver - do not tell your own mother what you are selling, all it takes is one person to copy you and there is some extra competition.

Congrats with the £700 turn over - do you shed a tear every month when the fees are to be paid?

I shouldn't go telling the world that you are under 18 but as long as you keep within the rules you should be fine.

Also paypal are at some point going to limit your account & ask you for a copy of your passport or drivers license a utility bill and probably some other information to comply with anti money laundering regulations. Hopefully you are using someone else ebay account if not you will need to get handy with photo shop

 

[silvermusic]

It's easy to sell on eBay, any fool can do it, what is harder is to make a decent profit margin. There are many busy fools on ebay, I watch them come and go throughout the year and at Christmas it's even worse as every Tom, Dick and Harry want a piece of the action. You need to be very careful as it's easy to get carried away on the nice cashflow and suddenly find you're making sod all profit. Use it with thought and caution and there is money to be made, but don't get into the trap of making it your only sales avenue.

One thing eBay is really good for is clearing out old or distressed stock providing you're not too concerned with making a lot on it. I have a clear out a couple of times a year and put it on a secondary eBay ID.

 

[paulears]

The point people miss is that if you are taking £700 a week, then you can afford the fees. If your fees are £100 a month that sounds a lot, but to get to that level of fees, you're taking in the money.

You have to accept that because of the distance selling regulations that you do have to give refunds and suffer the postage cost loss. It's just a running cost - but compare that with a real shop rent/rates/insurance - despite the ebau and paypal fees, it's cheap!

I've never had a faulty product - I know my stuff is reliable and any problems are really down to the buyers other kit. This means they complain the goods are faulty, when they're not - despite putting warnings in the sales blurb like "Do not buy this if you do not have 48V phantom power available from your equipment" people still send messages saying it doesn't work. I ask what they plug it into, then look it up on Google and it's always the same answer. I tell them to send it back. One customer bought a very cheap product where the postage for the return would be more than the purchase price - I told him to keep it. No point worrying, just write off these sales and keep a 100% record. When I have to do a refund like this, instead of getting cross, I just wait for the next sale to roll in, and then say to myself - don't count this one, it wipes out yesterdays loss, and move on!

I cannot think of another outlet that can generate this business level.

On the under 18 front. Keep in mind that you've broken the law. They're granting you credit - hence the 18 requirement. If they find out, they have to cancel your account. They also pass your details to HMRC - all banks, building societies and finance houses (which covers Paypal) must provide the tax authority with details of any interest paid - so HMRC already know about your account.

Paypal will ignore your age as long as you don't raise your head above the parapet by being dodgy, but they're very good at spotting duplicate signups. I have never had a chargeback yet - through being as careful as I can be and as honest. They don't support you against a purchaser, they ALWAYS err on the side of the buyer, even if you provide cast iron proof. Live with it!

 

[benjamin_c]

People often moan about the ebay fees but personally i think they are fair. where else would you have a client base as big as ebay without investing heavely in a good website, seo and PPC, it's the same situation for Amazon.
Although the 3.4% paypal fee should be lower in my opinion, or at least get rid of the 20p charge added on to the percentage as for low value transactions it can work out as a large proportion.
As others have said it is a risk using ebay as your only sales avenue because it only takes one policy change to screw you over. personally i'm supprised they don't credit score every account application..

 

[silvermusic]

The point people miss is that if you are taking £700 a week, then you can afford the fees. If your fees are £100 a month that sounds a lot, but to get to that level of fees, you're taking in the money.

If you're taking £700 a week (£2800 a month) in turnover then your fees are going to be far more than £100 a month, even off the top of my head that figure is way out.

So many times I hear these wonderful top line figures quoted for what folk are taking on eBay, so many times they never sit back and do the maths. Quite honestly I'm happy for yet another one to crash and burn. There's a whole lot of things to take off that top line figure, not least of which are eBay and PayPal fees and postage, not forgetting the obvious one the cost for the item you've had to buy to sell in the first place. Now tell me how long you spend on sourcing, listing, packing and posting then tell me what your hourly wage is.

 

[chris.quinn89]

have to agree with silverline - there is lots to come off the turn over of an ebay business...

having said that a £700 turn over at 17 is still something to be proud of. but if i turned over £600 I would only make a £100 profit after all expenses bar buyer fraud on one of my lower end items... having said that on some of my items a £700 turn over would equal a £300 profit.

I have no problem with ebay, paypal or amazon fees - but it still brings a tear to my eye when I have to pay £400-£700 a month but then again you have to think about the bigger picture those sales wouldn't have been made without ebay or amazon. If fact I am happy to pay any fee as long as I can maintain a profit.

 

[silvermusic]

have to agree with silverline

Who's this new fella. LOL

Seriously though, in my time I've sat down with several eBay sellers and horrified them with how little they're really making, assuming they're making money, because a lot of people aren't and don't figure it out until it's too late. It's all too easy to dismiss various things and put eBay fees on a credit card, it's easy to miss the fees your paying out each month on the items that don't sell, It's easy to forget about packing material costs, etc. etc.

If used well and with knowledge and thought eBay can be very good. But, it's so easy to be blinded by cashflow when things appear to be going well.

 

[chris.quinn89]

i would be the silent type

you are correct with everything you have said but I wouldn't agree with everything

yes you have to run an ebay business like any other business gross profit minus all expenses (everything) equals a net profit. if you are in the green then continue and if your not find a job....

On a seriously note, you can turn over £10,000 an hour and only make a couple £ profit. It is all about finding what works for you, if a £700 turnover is making this you a decent profit then solider on. However please please please make sure you are actually making a profit rather than basing your success on your turn over... I doubt you are paying your ebay fees on a credit card as you are only 17 but this might be helpfully to you: http://ecal.altervista.org/en/fee_calculator/ebay.co.uk/. Worth using if you are not already using it as it will tell you your net profit before tax on an item sold.

Good luck and keep growing

 

[Mike W]

First thing to do, open a separate bank account for eBay!!! PayPal and eBay are very dodgy with closing peoples accounts and blocking money.

They can't close your bank account!

They can only close their own accounts with you.

 

[voyage]

Well I think I have sucesfully lost my first thread on ukbf!

I dont think I will set up a ebay shop just yet. Instead I will aim the time and money at the website and once/if I have a spare moment I will focus some time on a ebay shop. I currently do sell on ebay but dont have that many items listed. It does however get rather annoying having to relist a item every month. It also then has to work its way back up the listings!

Thankyou all for your advice and words of warning.

 

[internetspaceships]

Ignore the fees. Ignore the naysayers. Do it.

We drive more traffic to our website from our ebay listings on the search engines than any other method of marketing.

Put your items up at "buy it now" and sit back and wait.

We've been members for over 8 years and haven't once had any issues (touch wood)

 

[frostystart]

We have 2 ebays and one website, ebay is great, once your feedback increases and you give a good service your listing fees drop to 5p an item!! The website does very little and cost us 1000's.
The difference in ebay shop and your own website is that ebay is like having a shop inside a big shopping centre you are bound to get customers going past or into your shop,

The website is like a shop down the end of a back street you need to tell people where it is by SEO and adverts so ebay is the much quicker option to bring in sales, NO website hosting, NO SEO fees, NO Advertising Fees, NO Pay per click, just a small fee when you SELL an item.
So go for it!
NOW

 

[patrick47]

Maybe use the money which you would spend on eBay fees and commission on PPC instead and direct some traffic to your website.

We tried this, but you are going to have to spend an awful lot of money on PPC to get anything near the potential traffic you'll get from ebay.

Thre is so much bad talk about ebay, but if you do it right, its massive.

Agree with the seperate bank account comments.

 

[silvermusic]

Agree with the seperate bank account comments.

I don't get the reason for needing a seperate bank account, anyone care to explain this one?

 

[internetspaceships]

I don't get the reason for needing a seperate bank account, anyone care to explain this one?

You can associate a bank account with your ebay and paypal accounts. As such if there are any problems with a transaction and Paypal take money back from you it is possible that it can come straight out of this account.

It's also theoretically possible to take money from your bank via your paypal account should the password for this be stolen and used.

Hence a separate bank account is often recommended. We havent done it in 8 years but some people do feel more comfortable operating this way.

 

[silvermusic]

You can associate a bank account with your ebay and paypal accounts. As such if there are any problems with a transaction and Paypal take money back from you it is possible that it can come straight out of this account.

My bank account was associated with my PayPal account a loooong while ago, I think it's one of the steps you need to complete to have a verified business account. However, I always keep a day or so's takings in my PayPal account in the event of a chargeback so it would come out of a balance and not my bank account. A bit like the float money in a normal cash register.

It's also theoretically possible to take money from your bank via your paypal account should the password for this be stolen and used.

Hence a separate bank account is often recommended. We havent done it in 8 years but some people do feel more comfortable operating this way.

Well I've just taken a look at my PayPal details and the bank details are only partial, second half of the account number and no sort code. So they'd have a job getting anything with those details. But there is an option to add funds from the bank account which takes 5-7 days. One thing you can be sure of I'd notice any strange behaviour within 24 hours if not sooner as I check both at least twice a day.

 

[dingbat]

Nothing wrong with an ebay shop. Yes, you hear many bad things here and all over the net about them but no one is going to go out of their way to say they are satisfied with their service.

As said, just make sure you work out your profit after fees, most importantly final value fees. I'm sure there are plenty of sellers who don't realise they could be making more collecting Nectar points or Royal Mail red rubber bands because they don't bother to check their fvf fees. While trying to compete with the next seller who is as ignorant. And if anyone thinks ebay's fees are bad - try Amazon.

 

[silvermusic]

I'm sure there are plenty of sellers who don't realise they could be making more collecting Nectar points or Royal Mail red rubber bands because they don't bother to check their fvf fees.

LOL, so true, must remember that one.

 

[arcon5]

bank details are only partial, second half of the account number and no sort code. So they'd have a job getting anything with those details.

You sure their system isn't just showing you partial information for security reasons?

for example, xxxx0123

Similar to the way when you verify your bank card details over they ask for the last 4 digits

 

[Mpg]

Is it bad of me that if I'm buying off the Internet, Ebay is my first port of call.

After finding what i want i will check to see if they have an online store but will often buy via Ebay. It only takes a few clicks. I dont need to find my card etc. And the protection for buyers is pretty good.

 

[arcon5]

Thats exactly the reason millions of consumers visit eBay.. whether your a fan of PP or not, they are a fantastic degree of protection.
Its obviously also something that can be abused by fraudsters also... but whether you like it or not they have vast numbers of buyers like youself who use it as their first point of call... why? because of the protection they get & the fact everything is dirt cheap.
You can run a successful ebay store for under £4k a year - compare that to a shop, a website ect?

Totally agree though, if your online and want something cheap you go to ebay... if your on a high street and want something cheap.. wilkinsons is the way to go

 

[internetspaceships]

yeah.Two things are bad.
1. Ebay fees
2. Paypal fees

Aye but they are "cost of sales," every sale costs money to complete we just factor it in.

 

[Mpg]

Per sale it's cheaper than having a shop.

I have no problem with either ebay or paypal. I just wish It had been my idea